Chapter 1: Prelude Arc

The Genin Exam!

The day a certain Naruto Uzumaki was born was one of tragedy. As his mother gave birth to him on the outskirts of Konoha under the protection of ANBU and her husband, an unknown assailant had infiltrated the cave in which he was born and had used him as leverage to separate his mother from his father.

The assailant had then extracted the Kyubi from his mother's seal and used it to reign death and destruction on the people of Konohagakure. Staking his life on the line the boy's father, the Fourth Hokage, battled with the fox and the assailant.

Eventually the combined efforts of the Fourth and his wife, managed to drive the assailant to retreat and release the Kyubi from its control. His wife already feeling the effects of the extraction requested her husband to deal with the beast.

Realising the man would come back one day to wage war against Konoha, the Fourth knew what he had to do. He cut the Kyubi's chakra in half, sealing one half into his new-born son and sealing the other into his wife to prevent her from dying.

This action resulted in the Fourth uttering his final words and taking his last breath. "I love you Kushina. Please protect our son."

The events that took place that day were labelled as a terrorist attack to the public. Details of Kushina's explanation of the assailant were kept to the high-ranking shinobi and he was now dubbed 'the Pale Man'.

Short staffed due to the attack, the Third Hokage resumed his position as leader of the village. He declared October 10th to be celebrated as the day the Fourth sacrificed his own life and placed a burden on his own son for the sake of the village.

These events affected the trajectory Konoha was going in. A grieve stricken Kushina Uzumaki joined ANBU, seeking to protect the village from threats just like her husband had done.

Seven years on from the Kyubi attack, a direct consequence of the events that took place that night shaped another boy's life. The Uchiha Clan Massacre took place by the hands of Itachi Uchiha, leaving only two survivors. His brother and mother.

With this a new destiny had been written, and the world was never going to be the same again.

It had been 12 years since that accursed day. The day that Naruto Uzumaki was born. A day that would not be forgotten by the villagers of Konohagakure. A day that marked the Fourth Hokage 's sacrifice to restore peace in the village, and to protect his wife and new-born son.

Kushina had been lying in bed thinking about all of this. Reminiscing of all the good times her and Minato had shared. And remembering his final wish to her. To protect their son.

And with that thought, she stumbled out of bed. Nothing was going to ruin this day for her son. It was a day of celebration and it would be treated as such.

As she started getting changed, she ran through the plan for the day in her head. Naruto was going to the Academy to take the graduation exam while she got the house ready for guests to come over. They would then go for some Ichiraku ramen after she picked him and Sasuke up after the exam. From there they'd return home to celebrate with the rest of Naruto's friends. Sounded easy enough right?

So, she put the finishing touches on her special red and gold kimono, smoothed out her hair, and went to wake up the birthday boy.

"Happy Birthday Naruto!" Kushina said as she opened the blinds in his room. The sun's harsh rays then beamed of his face forcing him awake.

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked with a confused expression on his face. "Is it really that time of year?!" This was for her benefit not his, for he had been constantly reminded of this day by the people around him and in him.

"Amazes me how you forget your birthday each year…" Kushina said giving him a deadpan look.

Swiftly trying to steer the conversation a different path, "Hope you remember the other reason it's a big day today." Naruto said.

"Of course, I do! We've been ready for this day for about 2 years now. Now go get ready. You've got 30 minutes." And with that, she marched out of the room.

Naruto then rose from his bed and walked into his bathroom to shower. She wasn't lying about that, that's for sure. With Kushina and Jiraiya helping him with his academy work and training he had been ready to take this exam for 4 years now in reality. As he stood there under the shower, he remembered all the times he had managed to convince Jiraiya to teach him a few stuff here and there. Bribing the perverted sage had become easier and easier the more he grew up. Now he had the perfect jutsu to pass the exam.

What had been a hard task was trying to convince Kakashi for a few tips. The guy always made sure to check up on him and his mum every month without fail. A gesture due to his relationship with Naruto's father. Yet he was never too keen on helping Naruto with the art of being a shinobi.

Now out of the shower shaking the water out his hair, he picked up his signature orange tracksuit and started getting dressed. He started wondering who his next teammates were going to be. Sasuke should've been a given due to their best friend status, but who was going to be their sensei? Or their third teammate?

He was good friends with most people in his class, so it wasn't really that big a deal. But preparing for their future awesome combination techniques would be made a lot easier if he knew now. He was having such a fun time imagining his combinations with Kiba that he only realised that he was going to be late for class.

He quickly gave himself a once over in the mirror imagining himself as the combination of his Mother's and his father's distinct features and then rushed downstairs to grab some toast.

"Okay Mum, I'm off!" Naruto shouted from across the hall as he ran for the door.

Kushina quickly swallowed her breakfast to exclaim a reply back, "Good luck sweetie, knock 'em dead!"

She knew he didn't need it, the outcome for this exam was already set in stone in her mind. The only thing she needed to worry about was whether they had messed up the cake order or not.

-ooo-

As Naruto entered his classroom, he was met with a surprise when everyone jumped out of their desks and all exclaimed "Happy birthday!"

Numerous high fives and hugs from his classmates followed as he felt flustered by all the attention. "I can't believe you guys remembered." Going the humble route was always the best idea he felt.

"What're you talking about? Of course, we would!", scoffed Kiba. "Your easily everyone's favourite blonde moron". As Kiba said this, a host of fangirls from other classes wailed our in the hallway screaming "Naruto-kun!".

Seeing this made Naruto sweatdrop. This wasn't new to him though. Ever since he had been born, the Fourth Hokage's wish for Naruto to be seen as a hero of the village due to him housing the Kyubii had come to pass. This resulted in him gaining praise for some of the most mundane reasons which attracted a whole load of 'fangirls'.

He didn't see himself as a hero as he didn't have much of a say in it and probably would have turned down the opportunity to have it sealed within him. If anything, his dad was the only real hero in the story as he had battled the beast only to die sealing it away.

As Naruto thought of this, he had zoned everything around him out and walked over to his seat next to Sasuke giving him a high five.

"We still good for the plan?" he asked.

He received a smirk from Sasuke in return, "Of course we are. Nothing's come up so we should be good."

Naruto nodded; everything was still going to plan. "Well I guess you should be ready for me being crowned Rookie of the year"

Sasuke snorted, "Fat chance, no way you do even stand a chance of doing better on the written exam."

"Been studying for this for the past 2 weeks, I'm coming for that title duck butt."

As Naruto and Sasuke started their rambling over who was going to be Rookie of the year, at the back of the class Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka were debating who was "dreamier" between the two prodigies.

"But Sasuke's sooooo strong! He's able to use Fire Release already at our age!", argued Sakura.

"But you forget, Naruto-kun is able to use Wind Release is one of the rarest traits in the village", Ino retaliated.

"Alas, it doesn't matter they'll both be mine!" They both shouted this at the same time alerting the entire class to what they were talking about.

"What a drag… Having to hear all this girl wasn't part of my plans today." Shikamaru sighed. He'd been with this class a year and nothing had been more annoying than the two girls fighting over the joint Rookie of the year winners. "Can't they do this somewhere else."

"Shika… you know that would be too easy." Choji said happily as he munched down on potato crisps.

Over at the front of the class, Iruka had just finished his headcount and coughed audibly trying to get the attention of this class. Seeing as to how he was getting ignored, he resorted to his plan B.

"Attention everyone!" Iruka exclaimed, notepad in hand. "Today, you'll be having your graduation exams. This will consist of a written exam, accounting for 40% of your total score, and a practical exam which accounts for the other 60%."

Mummers could be heard from the students, they realised this was it. The beginning of their lives as shinobi all rested on this exam.

Naruto looked straight at Iruka and knew he was on the first step on his road to becoming Hokage and surpassing his father. These exams should be easy for everyone here all things considered though. A score of 70% was needed to pass and being able to cast one of the basic jutsu for the practical exam was a guaranteed 60%.

"You would have to be pretty stupid to mess this up," Naruto thought to himself.

Iruka got the exam papers from his desk and gave a quick look around the class. "You will have 2 hours for this exam. Let's begin the written test then."

-ooo-

Meanwhile, as the exam was going on, over in the woods near the academy two academy students were having a competition using shurikenjutsu.

Sasuke readied himself, two shuriken in hand, and flashed his eyes red. The target for this round was on the tree behind the one he was facing but further to left. He threw both of them at once curving the both of them at once towards the tree causing them to deflect into each other landing one in the bullseye.

"There's no way that just happened…" Naruto said in shock. How on earth had he come up with that? More importantly, how was he going to top it or even equal it?

Sasuke scoffed, "My mum is a master at shurikenjutsu remember?"

Naruto fell on his arse and sighed. "Alright, you win this one. So, what's the score now?"

"I think that's 11-10 to me." He replied triumphantly.

"No way! I won the tree-climbing yesterday remember. That's 11-11."

"Oh yeah, you're right. Guess we have to have a tie-breaker then."

Naruto looked up with a devilish smile. "Tiebreaker can be whoever scores higher in the exam."

His best friend shared the same smile, "Hope you know you're going to lose, right?"

"We'll see about that. But first, what do you want to do now?"

"Not sure…" Sasuke started giving their next move some thought. Leaving the forest was out of the question lest they be caught by teachers that know they should be in class right now, but they had exhausted the activities to do in the forest. "Hmmm, let's just walk around for now. There should only be about 30 mins left of the exam anyway, no need to start something now."

Naruto shrugged putting his hands at the back of his head following Sasuke's lead. "Your call then I guess."

As they started walking around, they reminisced about all their adventures in here together. Learning the Shadow Clone Jutsu from Jiraiya had been a masterstroke from Naruto. Teaching it to Sasuke was an even smarter idea. They no longer had to spend time in class and could just hang out together without the supervision of teachers, practising their already advanced skills.

In truth both of them could've made for genin much earlier had they not been blocked by their respective parents who hadn't wanted them to see the perils of the shinobi life too young. That was what went wrong with Itachi, Mikoto had said. Thrust into the life of ANBU at their age had taken a toll on his psyche, not to mention the pressure the Uchiha clan had placed on the young shinobi. And for all that, he murdered their whole clan, leaving just two survivors. His brother and mother.

Naruto remembered that day all too well. Sasuke had been at the lowest point he had ever seen him, rejecting any sort of human contact except from his mum. Spending that majority of that Academy year staring out the window as if he wasn't really with them. It had taken months for him to even begin to have casual conversations using more than a one-worded reply. Another 2 years after that for him to let people back in.

And for that, Naruto knew he could thank Mikoto. For he believed without her there Sasuke would've stayed the same despondent young boy he had been. He knew Sasuke's hatred for his brother hadn't changed but Mikoto's love and care had let Sasuke realise that he still had a lot left to live for. If there was going to be any plus side to this, Sasuke had grown closer to his mother and had activated his Sharingan due to the trauma he had faced. Always a silver lining.

Now he was ready to take steps toward becoming stronger so he could finally avenge his clan once and for all.

"So, when's Jiraiya-sama coming to the village next?" Sasuke asked his blonde companion.

"No idea really," Naruto replied.

"Shame. Really wanted him to teach us a couple of new stuff. Wall walking got boring after the first month."

Naruto let out a fake yawn before responding, "He's got more important stuff than to teach a couple of academy students new techniques."

He hadn't seen his godfather in a long while, probably around two years he thought. What a day that had been. Who would've thought being able to walk on the side of buildings would be that useful?

Since that day though, it had been total radio silence and he was getting kind of worried. Naruto's mum had reassured him that nothing could've happened to the perverted sage. He was one of the strongest ninjas to have come from Konoha since its inception, he wasn't going to go down easy that's for sure.

"The written exam should be done now. How do you wanna play this?" Naruto asked.

"Swap with the clones during lunch, when they get around the trees, we use the kawarimi to swap with them." The raven-haired boy said.

"That's boring though," the blonde boy grumbled. "it's the last day, why not surprise everyone a lil bit?"

Sasuke facepalmed. "Because we may use this trick in future, and it'll be more useful if no one knows we can do it."

And that was that. They reached the trees near the training field and waited for their clones to reach them to swap places, a grey-haired man watched on from the shadows.

-ooo-

Mizuki was standing silently at the front of the class staring at the children as the talked to each other.

He was a seemingly quiet, kind-hearted man. He usually kept to himself, rarely ever spending time with his fellow teachers. Not much was known about his activities. Even Iruka, his childhood best friend, had struggled to connect with over recent years. Which was why it had come as a shock that he was leaving his job as an Academy instructor behind him. He was starting over as a member of the Konoha Military Police Force. Today's exam was his last official day at the academy.

You wouldn't have been able to tell with the lack of emotion on his face though. But if you paid attention to the man, you'd notice everything he did was oddly calculated.

He cleared his throat to get the class's attention.

"The final test to see if you will be shinobi of the village is to perform a simple clone jutsu." He boomed. "Let's start, shall we?"

-ooo-

"As if you scored higher than me," Naruto said between eating his ramen.

"Was never in doubt was it?" Sasuke said coolly.

"Was only by 3 questions as well…" he sighed. "Looks like you're the Rookie of the year."

"I'm sure you'll catch up to me one day."

"Fuck off."

"Naruto!" Kushina explained next to them. "It may be your birthday but watch your language."

Laughing nervously, he replied, "Sorry mum."

"Anyways, I'm finding it funny you thought you could beat Sasuke at a written test when he's got the Sharingan. He remembers everything he reads when it's activated. The perfect cheat code."

Naruto shot out his seat at the news, "That's not fair! How can I compete with that?"

"Through hard work only. There aren't many short cuts in life, so be prepared to take the long way around each time."

Naruto took this in. He hadn't expected the path to be Hokage to be easy. Although he had hoped to earn a couple 'brownie points' by being the son of the previous Hokage. That was looking to not be the case based on what his mum was saying. But that was going to deter him. If anything, it was spurring him on. He would continue where his father left off and be known as the greatest Hokage this village had seen; taking Sasuke along for the ride of course.

"Alright you guys finish up, we've got to get to the party." Kushina chided. "I've heard through the grapevine your mum is back from her mission Sasuke."

Sasuke's eyes lit up at the news, "Really? Can't wait to tell her about the exam."

"Good, so now hurry up and finish eating. Party starts in an hour."

-ooo-

"Happy Birthday Naruto!" the whole room shouted as Naruto sliced his cake. All his classmates and their parents all clapped and patted him on the back as they passed. Naruto himself was quite flustered by all the attention. A small mountain of presents was in the corner of the room, ranging from weights to new shinobi gear. He was going to be well prepared for his life of being a shinobi. Which so far was starting next week.

The guests had now split up into two distinct groups, the kids and the adults, and were now all in deep conversations with each other in even smaller groups.

He noticed a conversation between Shikamaru, Kiba, Sakura and Ino going at the bottom of the stairs while Akamaru was running around their feet.

"So, what'd you guys make of the test?" asked the feral boy.

Ino scoffed, "Was a piece of cake for me."

Sakura scoffed at Ino's boast but paused at the question giving it a bit more thought. "I wanted to bring this up after class, but did the test feel a bit too easy?"

Kiba looked at him quizzically, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well I'm not sure but surely an exam for being a shinobi should be more tasking than answering questions and performing a basic clone technique?"

Shikamaru, picking up sudden interest in the conversation, closed her eyes in concentration. "You make a good point, but there could be a load of reasons for that." He said. The question Sakura had asked was a very good one that he didn't necessarily have the answer to. The only thing he could say or think about would be speculative theories. "Making the test easy could be because they're trying to boost shinobi numbers across the whole village. It could also be because they don't want to deter any of the students from the path of being a shinobi."

"Yeah, that makes sense. If it's too hard people would give up before they've even experienced the life," Ino added.

Shikamaru continued her train of thought, "Or maybe the test is just what it is? It looks like they've been doing that same format since the village was made and they don't seem to think it's needed a chance."

The other three genin muttered out an agreement and shifted the conversation off in a different direction, like it hadn't even happened.

Naruto had heard the whole thing thought nothing of it. The test had been relatively easy but most of their parents had gone through the same process had they not? Konoha seemed to think this was an appropriate method of assessing them and who was he to complain about it?

Naruto continued to walk around the bottom floor moving in and out of conversations that were happening around him as the night went on. A lot of them involving tipsy adults congratulating him for passing the exam or his friends giving him pats on the back and fist bumps. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their time celebrating.

The keyword here was "seemed". The children were certainly enjoying their time.

But the adults…

The adults were drinking away the ghosts of the past.

Naruto wasn't oblivious to what had gone on the day he had been born. He was reminded of it by his very own existence.

The adults had seen numerous loved ones die as a result of the Kyubi's attack with some of them still having nightmares of the day.

Although the Fourth had requested him to be treated as a hero, Naruto knew some of the villagers still feared and resented him. He could feel it all in his head. The evil intent they wished upon him had traumatised him as a kid and wouldn't be forgotten anytime soon.

As the semi-drunk adults started filing out and taking their children home, Naruto continued wandering around the bottom floor and spotted Sasuke and his mum in deep conversation with Iruka, Mikoto with a proud smile on her face at what they were discussing. He diverted his attention to looking for his mum and moved to the kitchen, the only room he hadn't touched all night.

As he slid the door open, he saw his mum, with her back, turned towards him, in the middle of a conversation with Shikaku and a purple-haired lady. Yugao, he thought her name was.

Shikaku looked past her shoulder noticing Naruto behind and whispered something into Kushina's ear. He patted her on the back and made his way past Naruto, who could've sworn he heard a "Happy birthday" under his breath.

Yugao was still in the same spot whispering to Kushina, giving side eyes to the young blonde before giving her a short hug and muttering, "It'll be alright Senpai." And then she exited the room, leaving Naruto and Kushina alone.

"….M-mum?" Naruto said in a quiet voice. He wasn't a huge fan of how everyone was being very hush-hush right now and ideas were running through his mind already.

The train of thought disappeared when Kushina turned around. Her puffy, red eyes and smeared makeup gave Naruto all the information he needed to know. He ran towards her and hugged her knees trembling.

If there was anything to know about Naruto Uzumaki, it was the fact he was a huge mummy's boy. As he admits himself, he'd do anything for her. She was the only family he had, and he would do anything to protect her.

Which was why seeing her there in tears was a complete heart-wrenching for him.

"…What's going on?" Naruto asked quietly.

Kushina stayed silent, letting the question sit for several minutes as she enjoyed the embrace of her son. "It's just… your father."

Naruto nodded.

"You're growing up so fast and it hurts knowing how proud Minato would've been if he could see you."

Naruto nodded again, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Don't cry," She said stroking his head. "It's a day of celebration. Let's go see off everyone and then get to bed okay?"

The blonde 12-year-old mumbled out a reply and wiped his face while his mum escorted him back to the main room where they waved off the last of the stragglers.

Naruto said his goodbye to Sasuke and Mikoto and promised to see him before they're due in to meet their teams tomorrow.

Kushina proceeded to tuck him into bed despite his protests and that was the night for him.

Or that's what he would've liked.

He opened his eyes and found himself in what looked like a sewer with a humongous metal cage at the end of it. This was a place he was all too familiar with.

Sitting behind the cage, the Kyubi opened its glowing red-eye and let out a grin.

-ooo-

Kushina felt bad for lying to Naruto even though she harboured good intentions with it.

It wasn't a full-blown lie to be fair to her. She had been crying over Minato but not just him. Naruto was the person that she was concerned about.

Her world had been shattered that night 12 years prior. She would have died on that night if it hadn't been for Minato's quick thinking putting the Yin half of the Kyubi's chakra into her and the other half into their son, believing he would find a way to harness its power to defeat the Pale Man.

But in the end, it had cost Minato his soul, which was now in eternal limbo with the Shinigami.

She had come to terms with all of us this about 2 years ago. What she hadn't come to terms with was the thought of Naruto coming to the same fate as Minato.

Him passing the graduation exam had brought all that worry to the forefront of her mind and she was struggling to cope with the idea. She had lost everyone she had ever cared about, not limited to her parents, the love of her life and her entire clan.

She was praying to Kami that her son wouldn't suffer the same fate.

Shikaku and Yugao had been doing their best to comfort and support her while she had gone through her mini-breakdown and had eased her mind a bit.

But it wasn't enough to stop her from coming here though.

So here she was. At the grave of her husband.

But she wasn't alone. A masked man had beaten her to the place, and he seemed to just be staring into the open space.

A/N: Part of a three-chapter upload. Read till Chapter 3 for full A/N.